Happy 40th Anniversary GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE

On July 2nd, 1986,

A little film about a mouse who dresses and acts like Sherlock Holmes during QUEEN VICTORIA's Diamond Jubilee was released in Cinemas everywhere in the United States, Canada, etc.

And at the right moment too as VANCOUVER's SKYTRAIN had just opened on DECEMBER 11 1985 so I guess many people when they weren't attending EXPO 86 decided to hop aboard the SKYTRAIN circa 1986 just to go to the FAMOUS PLAYERS cinemas such as the 2-Screen VANCOUVER CITY CENTRE CINEMA in GRANVILLE STREET which right now is a TOM LEE MUSIC,

Or whatever CINEMA was playing the film in 1986 like the 

former FAMOUS PLAYERS CAPITOL 6 In Downtown Vancouver for example

Either way or another, this film was a big hit when it released

because it had been roughly a year since the infamous release of THE BLACK CAULDRON that almost sank the DISNEY company due to company politics, etc.

MORAL was also at an all-time low. 

That's because the animators had been exiled from BURBANK and relocated to GLENDALE after the failure of CAULDRON in 1985.

So this meant it made submitting their work or even recycling certain visual effects very difficult due to the distances between BURBANK & GLENDALE.

Because this all predated the modern internet.

(The internet of the 1980s was all text based BBS systems)

there was no remote work involved..... sort of.

The only way the Animators could talk to the Disney Upper Management was either through in-person meetings or through the Telephone

Using SALLY to represent the animator

and CONNIE BENGE as the Executive....

Both are from DOUG.

or via driving all the way from GLENDALE to BURBANK and vice versa.

Using Hank Hill's 1986 Ford Ranger 

just to be period Accurate.

But despite the negativity of the move to a new building, the animators made the most of it

Like I said about 101 DALMATIANS earlier in January 2026, MOUSE DETECTIVE was made as a MAKE-OR-BREAK film as it came shortly after CAULDRON bombed at the BOX-OFFICE,

ironically not against a DON BLUTH film but rather against SACHARINE CANADIAN BEARS.

When MOUSE DETECTIVE premiered, the money it made in the BOX OFFICE was more than what DISNEY imagined and even managed to recoup the costs that CAULDRON could not.

It really was that successful. 

Because of all that, 

It was a blend of DISNEY MAGIC that the new Animators who replaced the NINE OLD MEN could muster after the 20 years the studio that stagnated in which they bounced back.

The film also allowed for a much better blending of the 2D Acetate Cels and CGI.... sort of.

The way it was done was that the CGI was made in the computer first

This was before DISNEY invested in PIXAR's image computers

for their CAPS Systems.

Although the Documentary mentions a mechanical hand with a Ballpoint pen, I call baloney on that.

What I think the animators really used to transfer the Wireframes onto animation paper was one of those line plotters

Like this HEWLETT PACKARD plotter here.

Once the CGI line plotted drawings are complete, they're sent to the character animators who draw on a separate piece of paper their assigned character

Once the Character animation is cleaned up, both the Character Animation and the CG Wireframes are sent to the XEROX Department

Where they get painted onto cels with the finest acrylic paint imaginable

And thanks to the Anime GOLDEN BOY, I now know that the painters also had to make sure they shake the cels slightly to get rid of the AIR BUBBLES since certain CEOS and Art Directors can be very picky about the presentation of the cels when exposed to bright lights under the camera.

After the paint dries, it's all sent to the Camera Department to be photographed on 35mm Film stock

And this is the end result

The casting is all superb here.

The late actor VINCENT PRICE portrays the villain RATTIGAN.

I've heard that RATTIGAN is a favorite roll amongst PRICE during his later years in life.

Probably because of his cunning and snivvy personality that's so befitting VINCENT PRICE.

Of course, We can't forget about BARRIE INGHAM

He portrays BASIL of BAKER STREET.

He's sort of the MOUSE Equivalent of SHERLOCK HOLMES but if you've watched the movie or even read the book that the movie's based on, BASIL is different than his human namesake.

This BASIL is sort of a lovable scoundrel who wants to help out but at first, he wants to do things his own way.

Hmmm... Gives me SNAKE PLISKKEN vibes

Here's an interesting piece of trivia:

Last year on JULY 2 2025, Pete Emslie of THE CARTOON CAVE made a post about the film detailing the impact the film had on him.

And he also shared two photo scans of when He met in person both VINCENT PRICE

& BARRIE INGHAM.

and shared to the two of them his CARICATURES of both actors.

If you're wondering about my Screenshots, I'm using a 35MM Italian Print of  the movie I found on ARCHIVE.ORG which explains the grain, color depth, and open-matte aspect ratio.

And bits of where the Camera fulcrum accidentally reveals the acetate celluloid nature of the artwork and Camera Desks

No wonder DISNEY prefers their WIDESCREEN Prints of this film since it emulates how

cinema houses always close the Projection apertures to maintain full widescreen.

and it's no wonder why DISNEY switched to DIGITAL INK & PAINT IN 1989.

I had a hard time finding a Blu-Ray and I wasn't in any position to make an AVERMEDIA Capture of the film on DISNEY+ since I have a hunch the film is not in 4K & HDR10 like BLACK CAULDRON is so I instead used this print from ARCHIVE.ORG because I can.

As for why I mentioned FAMOUS PLAYERS instead of CINEPLEX ODEON, 

I read on CINEMA TREASURES that in the 1980s and later the early 1990s,

FAMOUS PLAYERS & CINEPLEX ODEON each had exclusive distribution rights from respective studios.

And FAMOUS PLAYERS was often the preferred Cinema chain for DISNEY in CANADA so that's why.

I could be wrong though.

Let me know in the comments if they did play DISNEY MOVIES in 1980s CINEPLEX Locations.